Danielle Rogerson and Joe Smith are a thrilled pair of parents to hold their ­identical twin children. The twin boys are healthy but there is something peculiar about them. Ronnie was born twice the weight of his brother Teddy. This is due to a rare condition which they fell victim to – which they are lucky to have survived.

The peculiar case of Ronnie and Teddy

Danielle was diagnosed with twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) at only seven weeks of gestation after the difference in size between the boys’ was noticed. Doctors warned the couple that their children were ­unlikely to make it because there was something wrong with how they were getting nutrients from a shared placenta.

They met on Tinder

Danielle, met Joe, an estate agent, in December 2014 on Tinder. Their love blossomed and soon enough, the ­couple was ready to start a family in 2016. But it was not going to be easy sailing for the pair. Danielle was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries as a ­teenager and was aware that her chances of conceiving naturally were slim.

They wanted to start a family…

Danielle told, “Doctors wanted to give me ­medication to help our chances but first they checked Joe’s fertility. After samples and tests it was confirmed that sadly, Joe’s semen didn’t contain any sperm at all.”

But they couldn’t achieve their dream

Understandable disheartened, the embryologist explained that it wasn’t the quality of Joe’s sperm – it was ­brilliant – but it just wasn’t getting through to semen in the usual way. Danielle went on, “It meant we could have IVF and in October 2016 we were accepted for funding.”

Finally some happy news!

After a fertilized embryo was planted into Danielle’s womb in March 2017, she had to wait for a period of two weeks before taking a pregnancy test. She excitedly recalled, “When the day came I took the test at 5 am. Twice! Both results were positive!”

An alarming development

“We were so excited we could hardly contain ourselves. We called both our mums and said, ‘Good morning Nanny’’’, Danielle recounted. And then a scan at seven weeks picked up that the egg had split – Danielle was going to have twins. But there was an alarming development. There was a noticeable size difference between the twins, even though each fetus was no bigger than a blueberry.